Sengoku Otogi Zoushi
by ForgottenKaze
Summary: Here in lie many beloved Japanese folk tales, many warped beyond recognition by the characters of InuYasha. Includes many minor characters and pairings.


This here will be a small (yeah, right) group of Japanese folk and fairy tales, retold and warped with InuYasha characters. Most of the characters implicated will be minor ones, so you might want to look them up. (I also apologize for any out of character-ness, which would mostly be caused either due to them being minor, or this being a parody.)

Disclaimer: I do not own anything.

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Once upon a time, high in the densely forested mountains of Japan, there lived an old, alcoholic of a monk and his tanuki servant in a fairly large temple. Now the monk, named Mushin, loved sake more than anything in the world, and had a large collection of sake cups and bottles. They came in all sizes and colours; round and square, china and wood, painted and unpainted, in any and all combinations imaginable.

One day, Mushin's tanuki servant, Hachiemon, found a lovely sake bottle while shopping in town. The bottle was lacquered red, with light pink sakura blossoms swirling against the red, and engraved in gold was the kanji for happiness.

"_Mushin-sama would like this,"_ Hachi thought as he purchased the bottle from the shop manager who looked a suspicious lot like a 'garden gnome' or whatever from one of the countries to the far West.

"What a pretty sake bottle," Mushin commented when Hachi gave him his gift. "Thank you, tanuki-san."

With out another comment, the monk left to his personal rooms, and poured himself some sake.

Deep into the night, when Mushin was asleep, something magical happened…

No, really? Magic, in a fairytale? Who am I kidding?

Ahem. Anyway, with the power of fairy tales on its side, the sake bottle began to jiggle, then wiggly, then [insert other word with 'iggle' in it here], until a head, two arms, and two legs popped out of it. The living bottle looked around, then, seeing that there was nothing to do, it started walking around, looking for a kiln.

Just then, Hachi came into the room. And what did he see there but the aforementioned walking sake bottle?

"Gaagh!" the tanuki yelled, backing into a corner. The shout seemed to have scared the bottle, or at least the spirit that lived in it, as it returned to being an inanimate object.

Mushin, too, was woken by the racoon-dog's cry.

"Huh? W'at's goin' on…?" Mushin slurred.

"Your sake bottle…! It's moving! It's walking around!" Hachi yelled, scampering behind Mushin.

The drunken monk slowly turned his head to look at the bottle.

"You're delusional," he stated. "It's an ordinary sake bottle."

"But it was _dancing_!" protested Hachiemon, still clinging to the monk's robes.

"Yes, yes, now run along." Mushin nodded, and sat back down. Hachi scampered out of the room. "Well then, time for more sake."

As he poured himself a cup –and further endangered his liver, brain, and several other organs and tissues- he could have sworn he heard a small voice from the bottle yell "Stop it! Let me go!"

Surprised, Mushin dropped the bottle. It felt to the floor, emptying itself of its contents. The bottle righted itself, then bowed.

"Thank you," the bottle said in a feminine voice. "I felt like I was drowning in that sake. I am Enju, a simple potter who was cursed by the fearful witch Urasue… Is there something wrong?" she asked, seeing that the old monk had pulled himself back into a corner.

"Er, no, nothing at all," Mushin replied, scratching the back of his head.

"_Surely this bottle is cursed! Instead of doing my job as a monk, I will give it to the junkman tomorrow," _he thought.

And so it was. The next day, Mushin gave the sake bottle to the junkman, a man by the name of Shinosuke.

"What a beautiful sake bottle this is!" exclaimed Shinosuke. "Surely, if I sell this, I will have enough money to ask for Wakana-san's hand in marriage!"

For you see, Shinosuke had it in his mind to wed the beautiful Wakana, a girl from his village, but he was to poor and had nothing to offer her. Thus why he was working as a junkman, and not, say, as a farmer or a soldier or whatever other positions they needed men for back in those days. Can you sense the sarcasm in that last?

That night, as the junkman sat admiring bottle, Enju gathered up her courage and poked her head out of the bottle.

"Ah!" Shinosuke exclaimed softly. "What are you?"

Enju told him her story. "I heard you when you said you wanted to marry that girl, Wakana was it?"

Shinosuke nodded.

"I can help you, but you must not fill me with sake, or any liquids for that matter. I really don't want to drown or live with my hair smelling like sake. So, in order that I can make you at least some money, you must also get me a good sized piece of clay from the riverbed."

Shinosuke complied with her wishes, and soon he had three well made jars, which he took into town and sold. Enju kept making clay dishes and jars, and soon, he had more than enough money to wed Wakana, and so he did.

"How can we ever thank you enough?" asked Shinosuke to the cursed potter.

"Please, take me back to Mushin's temple!" Enju begged.

Shinosuke agreed, as he had as much money as he and Wakana could ever want. And so the little sake bottle was returned to the temple, where she (it?) made beautiful sake bottles and cups both for old monk Mushin, and along with other clay things to sell, making the temple very rich and famous almost overnight.

Of course, several of the pots met their death upon Mushin's head, for that was where Enju threw them when the old monk tried to fill her up with sake.

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Okay, this was changed a bit (read: a _lot_) from the original... Please feel free to correct me on anything you see wrong in here, and I will try to correct it. I'm sorry if the humor wasn't that good, as I'm still learning how to write it well.

Well, what are you waiting for? Please leave me a review with your thoughts, ideas, or rants. I'm happy reading all three!


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